1832.] Further Illustrations of the Antilope Hodgsonii. 59 



II — Further Illustrations of the Antilope Hodgsonii. By B. H. 



Hodgson, Esq. 



Having lately received two more stuffed specimens of the Chirii 

 Antilope, these being the fourth and fifth which I have obtained in 

 the last two seasons, I beg leave to send you the chief results of my 

 examination of them, in emendation of, and addition to, the account of 

 this animal with which I supplied you last year, and which you pub- 

 lished in the Gleanings No. XXIII. 



The average size of the mature male exceeds not 5 feet of length, 

 from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail ; nor two feet ten inches 

 of height, at the shoulder. From the occiput to the insertion of the 

 tail, 3J feet. Length of the neck 12 to 14 inches : of the head, 10 

 to 11 inches : of the tail 5^ inches, without the hair ; 8^, with it. 



The nasal tumours are natural formations, and not the consequence 

 of disease, as had been suggested to me. I have lately examined 

 them with care, and find them to be composed of firm, elastic 

 skin and cartilage, like the nostrils, immediately behind the pos- 

 terior boundary of which they are placed, and into which they 

 open freely and obviously ; being in fact a prolongation backwards, 

 and an accessary dilatation of that reflexion of the skin which lines 

 the nostrils. Externally, these peculiar formations present a round, 

 firm, elastic swelling on each lip, well defined, and covered with hair, 

 like the proximate parts. Internally, they constitute a sac of capacity 

 to hold a marble, lined with the same skin which lines the nostrils, and 

 not communicating with the interior of the nose, except by and through 

 the ordinary nostrils, into which the sacs open forwards by a slit that 

 will admit the finger to be passed into it, and thence all over the in- 

 terior of the sacs. These sacs or sinuses are usually defiled with 

 mucus, secreted from the nose ; and they seem to me (who am no ana- 

 tomist) to be nothing more than accessary nostrils, designed to assist 

 this exceedingly fleet animal in breathing, when he is exerting all his 

 speed : for the expansion of the nostrils opens them also, and their 

 elasticity allows of their being dilated in the manner of the nostrils. 

 There is not the least appearance in the Chfru, either external or in the 

 bones of the scull, of lachrymary sinuses : and the nose is ovine, that 

 is perfectly clad and dry, but with somewhat of the cervine breadth 

 and bluntness of termination. The Chiru is a very compactly formed 

 animal, standing high on the legs, and full of vigour, grace, and spirit. 



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